Wrestling the Octopus: how to avoid writing a novel

by on September 17, 2020 in My First Novel, On Writing and tagged , , , , , ,

At a certain point, a novel-in-progress starts to get a tad unwieldy. When you begin, you have a blank screen and the boundless enthusiasm of a puppy. After a few months you have a mountain of scrap paper scrawled with half-finished paragraphs and synopsis drafts, screeds of ideas jotted down and pinned all over the walls in your office, […]

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Heartbeat

by on May 10, 2020 in My Short Stories, On Writing and tagged , , , , , ,

I have one beautiful daughter, but making her wasn’t simple. I lost two pregnancies before conceiving her, and three after her, while trying for a second. I started this story years ago and dug it out and finished it just today. It attempts to put into words my belief that our children will always be […]

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Dandelion Clocks

by on August 22, 2019 in My Short Stories, On Writing and tagged , , , , , ,

It’s nearly spring; my favourite time of year. I wrote this story after I had witnessed my precious cat Lucy being run over in front of me. I wanted to commemorate her in some way, and I also wanted to reflect on the immense power that throwaway words and small gestures can have, particularly when […]

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Beginnings

by on December 11, 2016 in On Writing and tagged , , , , , , , , ,

I’m going home next June. I was born in Northern Ireland, and lived with my Protestant minister father and my mother and two siblings in County Armagh, just by the border. In the seventies (yes I am that old) South Armagh was known as “bandit country” because it was such a dangerous place to be during […]

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Choosing a Title

by on June 15, 2016 in My First Novel, On Writing and tagged , , , , , , ,

A short thought today on titles – specifically, choosing one for your story or novel or poem. Each time I start a new post here I am invited to fill in the “Title” section at the top. I used to struggle with this. I tried to come up with something creative and intriguing and clever, […]

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Flowers

by on August 31, 2014 in My Short Stories, On Writing and tagged , , , , ,

This, for better or for worse, is the “crap but short” story I referred to in yesterday’s post. I just sat down and wrote the first thing that came into my head. What emerged was an unintentional mini-meditation on the issues preoccupying me at the moment: love and sadness, regrets and hopes, the dream state, […]

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Tell Me On a Sunday, Please

by on June 15, 2014 in My Short Stories, On Writing and tagged , , , , ,

I don’t often pick up the phone on a Sunday. I prefer to cloister myself at home, with no intrusion from the outside world. If it’s important they’ll leave a message or call my mobile, I reason. I don’t answer my mobile unless the caller ID announces a friend to whom I feel like talking. […]

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The Girl Behind The Bar

by on June 15, 2014 in My Short Stories, On Writing and tagged , , , , ,

I entered this story in a competition a few months ago. Today I found out how I went. Read my next post to find out… The Girl Behind The Bar The girl behind the bar, her face tight like a punch, takes my order. She grips at the tap with a grubby thumb, her blonde […]

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Descent

by on February 5, 2014 in My Short Stories and tagged , , , , , ,

We stand together looking at the view. It is more impressive than a Monet, as shattered as a Picasso. I try to tell him this but he interrupts. I may know nothing about “art,” he says, using his fingers as quotation marks, but in my very humble opinion that tree is an eye, that sand […]

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Of Grief and Naked Bottoms

by on November 18, 2013 in My Short Stories, On Writing and tagged , , , , , , ,

I’ve just been published in a New Zealand literary journal called JAAM. The 2013 issue, JAAM 31, was officially launched on Friday night. For those of you new to my blog who may not have trawled through all my fiction yet, I’m going to post the story here again. I edited it quite a bit before […]

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